Ethical Sales & Communication Programme

Our Story

Here is how it all happened.

In 1996, I was delivering a Sales Training Course for the world-famous Dale Carnegie Training Organisation in Manchester.

It was a normal two-day course, with delegates attending from all sorts of industries, however, for the very first time, right at the bottom of the class rota were two dentists. I interviewed these dentists who told me they had great technical skills, however, they struggled getting patients committed to their treatment plans.

They told me that when they were explaining treatment to patients, they would often communicate too technically, told patients to go home and think about their treatment and were not good at discussing their fees.

For example, if the treatment was £500, by the time it came out of their mouth, often it would be £400, thinking, that if they made the treatment cheaper, more patients would say yes. However, they did not realize this was costing them thousands of pounds of lost income every month and yet in reality after taking our programmes, when they charged the correct fee, most patients would pay anyway.

‘They were now delivering the Dentistry they loved to do & their patients wanted’.

Several weeks after the course, I was lying on my couch at home, thinking I wonder how those two dentists got on with the programme, should I ring them and see how they were getting on? I must admit, it took me ten minutes to decide to call them, mainly because I did not think they enjoyed the programme, however, I decided to step outside my comfort zone and make the calls, I am glad I did. 

I could not get Neil and Barry off the phone, as they told me with so much enthusiasm how more patients were saying yes, they were not discounting anymore, but the main thing they told me, they were now delivering the dentistry they love to do, and their patients wanted.

The other thing they told me, was they were building stronger relationships with their patients, asking better questions to open opportunities and it was all done in an ethical manner, it was not selling.

I always remember Neil saying, ‘It’s like learning how to sell without selling’ and they are telling their friends about me, my books are full, I came off the call, with a smile as wide as a Cheshire cat.

I kept in touch with Neil (we are still exceptionally good friends today) and Barry and several months later, through ‘word of mouth referrals’ I delivered my first ever Ethical Sales & Communication Course to 26 dentists and their teams.

I followed up every delegate and they were all achieving amazing results, but the common thread, was that they were now delivering the dentistry they loved to do, and the good news is their patients wanted this.

They had taken all these technical courses, in many cases purchased the lots of kit, but had never really achieved their full potential.

Over the next few years, I delivered 3 courses a year, tried to speak at as many conferences, evening events as possible, often travelling 300 miles plus to speak at an evening BDA meeting and travelling back in the same night to get home to Manchester, often for expenses only.

I started to write a monthly newsletter, ‘Lunch and Learn’, I still write today, however, it goes out weekly to over 15000 dentists world-wide.

Then in 2001 I started to get serious and concentrated 100% of my time coaching, training dentists and their teams to develop world class Ethical Sales & Communication Skills, to create the perfect patient journey in their Practice, helping them create more opportunities.

Today, I have personally delivered over 33,500 hours of training to the dental industry, probably more than anyone else on the planet.

In 2004, I wrote the first of our three books ‘Don’t wait for the Tooth Fairy – How to Communicate Effectively & Create the Perfect Patient Journey in Your Dental Practice’, which is an overview of the two-day course.

After speaking to thousands of dentists, one common challenge they faced was discussing fees. Many dentists told me they would often discount their fees in their head, or not even discuss fees at all. Because of this, in 2010, I wrote the book ‘You are Worth it- How to Discuss fees with self Confidence & achieve the income your services deserve’ and our recent book, which I co- written with Alistair Mann, ‘The Practice Managers Jugglers’ which is a book specifically for Practice Managers.

In 2008, was a real breakthrough year as we started taking the courses outside the UK. First Ireland, Holland, Canada and then the USA.  Australia followed in 2015, and then Singapore in 2018 and every year, I travel at least four times internationally to deliver our courses.

Because of this, I have spoken at many prestigious dental conferences, the highlights were speaking at the ‘Royal Dutch 100-year Anniversary’ where I shared the main stage with the King of Holland and in 2018, I presented at the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, where I presented on the main stage to 2000 delegates.

If you fast forward today, as an organisation, we are consistently adapting to the constant change in the dental market. We deliver 9 different Open programmes for the dental market, many of these at our training facility in North Manchester, we have various Online Courses, so dentists and their teams can learn at home, or in their Practice in their own time.

We have four different instructors, myself, Alistair Mann, Mike Hesketh and Jaswinder Gill and we have a superb back office team, led by Lissa Mann.

All this has been achieved because I made two telephone calls, every dentist should do this every day.

Although difficult to quantify, our courses have helped dentists generate hundreds of millions of pounds worth of extra treatment and our clients use our processes every day, all over the world.

All this has happened, because I decided to make two telephone calls to two dentists who took a course with me. It is one of the best pieces of advice I give dentists today, is to telephone their patients at home, make time each day to do this and I promise it will pay dividends in the long run.

We still follow up our clients today, speaking with them finding pout what is working, so that we can then share with future clients on our courses. You are the source of our new material all the time.

Our unique approach
We have one mission when we work with our clients, and that is whoever we work with, that they will leave our courses with new skills, new attitudes, new levels of self-confidence and most importantly, new behaviours. Henry Ford once said. ‘If you always do what you have always done, then you will always get what you have always got’.

 That is why when you take part on our courses, you will not be lectured at, we will share the materials with you, you will then practice and receive coaching from us, so that you develop new skills, new behaviours that stick, that really make a difference.